Analysis of Little Tear-Vase

Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)



Other vessels hold wine, other vessels hold oil
inside the hollowed-out vault circumscribed by their clay.
I, as smaller measure, and as the slimmest of all,
humbly hollow myself so that just a few tears can fill me.

Wine becomes richer, oil becomes clear, in its vessel.
What happens with tears?-They made me blind in my
        glass,
made me heavy and made my curve iridescent,
made me brittle, and left me empty at last.

Translated by Stephen Mitchell


Scheme XXXX AXXXX A
Poetic Form
Metre 101011101011 010101101111 1110100101011 10101111011111 1011010110110 11011111101 1 11100111010 11100111011 01011010
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 454
Words 81
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 5, 1
Lines Amount 10
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 118
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

24 sec read
381

Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke — better known as Rainer Maria Rilke — was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist, "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose. more…

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